Task Manager Disabled by Administrator Warning

Please help. I keep getting "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator." How do I enable it?

Q: Please help. I keep getting "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator." How do I enable it? - Billy J. F.

A: Assuming this is not a situation where an actual administrator has disabled Task Manager, you can fix that message using REGEDIT. However, there are a surprising number of places to look. Click Start, click Run, enter REGEDIT. Now navigate in turn to each of the Registry keys shown in the first column below. Look in the right-hand pane for the value named in the second column. If present, double-click the value and set its data to 0.

Assuming you found one or more of these and changed its data to 0, reboot the computer and see if that did the job.

Do note that many malicious applications (spyware, viruses, Trojans) disable Task Manager to keep users from identifying or disabling them. If the setting comes back right away or if you get a similar message when launching REGEDIT, the problem is likely one of two things. 1) This computer is actually managed by an Administrator who has set policies to disable these tools, or 2) you have a malware infestation. Now might be a good time to review your choice of Security Suite. - Neil J. Rubenking.

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted by readers. By 1990, he had become PC Magazine's technical editor, and a coast-to-coast telecommuter. His "User to User" column supplied readers with tips...
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